Buckingham Palace and Harry Potter

This morning I did a lot of reading, and then I went to a 2:00 tour of Buckingham Palace. It was an audio tour, and took over an hour and a half. The tour was through the State Apartments, which are only open to the public in August and September when the queen is in Scotland. The inside of the palace was huge and ornate and very impressive, but the outside looked more worn down than I'd expected. We were only allowed to take pictures in the garden, so here's what I've got.

View of Buckingham Palace from the Gardens

View of Buckingham Palace from the Gardens

The Gardens

The Gardens

The Gardens

After the tour, I met up with Katie for a walking tour called "The Real World of Harry Potter." The tour guide was very entertaining; he was very outgoing and did lots of magic tricks. He told us stories about the origins of names in Harry Potter. (Rubeus Hagrid means a ruddy bad night. Albus Dumbledore means white bumblebee. The invisibility cloak is based off of a story of a scary man who used to think that if he wore his black cloak, he was invisible. Nicholas Flamel is real and people in France really do believe the elixir of youth exists. "Quidditch" is based off of a swamp nicknamed "Queer Ditch" where shady people (ie witches and wizards) used to hang out. There was lots more, but I don't remember it all.)


Our tour guide, Alan. The color of his vest and pocket flower changed a lot haha.

The telephone booth that is supposedly the entrance to the Ministry of Magic.

This road is the inspiration for Diagon Alley. There are lots of bookshops with books about magic here, and one shop sells Harry Potter money.

This was on the sign of one of the shops in "Diagon Alley."

The tour was a lot of fun, but I was hoping to go to more sites. Alan did tell us where Platform 9 3/4 is and where the Gringotts scene was filmed. I am definitely going to King's Cross station to get my picture taken at Platform 9 3/4. Katie wants to go, too, so we will have to plan a day trip.